Jacques Desjardin

Jacques Desjardin
Jacques Desjardin bust sculpted by Antoine Laurent Dantan in the Galerie des Batailles at the Palace of Versailles
Born	(1759-02-09)9 February 1759 Angers, Maine-et-Loire, France
Died	11 February 1807(1807-02-11) (aged 48) Landsberg in Ostpreußen, now Poland
Allegiance	Kingdom of France  France
Service/branch	Infantry
Years of service	1776–1791 1791–1807
Rank	General of Division
Battles/wars	War of the First Coalition Battle of Jemappes (1792) Battle of Grandreng (1794) Battle of Erquelinnes (1794) Battle of Gosselies (1794) Siege of Luxembourg (1794-5) War of the Third Coalition Capitulation of Dornbirn (1805) War of the Fourth Coalition Battle of Jena (1806) Battle of Czarnowo (1806) Battle of Gołymin (1806) Battle of Eylau (1807) †
Awards	Légion d'Honneur

Jacques Desjardin or Jacques Jardin or Jacques Desjardins; (9 February 1759 – 11 February 1807) enlisted in the French royal army as a young man and eventually became a sergeant. During the first years of the French Revolutionary Wars he enjoyed very rapid promotion to the rank of general officer in the army of the French First Republic. In May and June 1794 he emerged as co-commander of an army that tried three times to cross the Sambre at Grandreng, Erquelinnes and Gosselies and each time was thrown back by the Coalition. After that, he reverted to a division commander and saw more service in the north of France, Belgium, and the Netherlands. In the campaign of 1805, he led an infantry division under Marshal Pierre Augereau in Emperor Napoleon's Grande Armée and saw limited fighting. In 1806 he fought at Jena, Czarnowo and Gołymin. He was mortally wounded at the Battle of Eylau on 8 February 1807 and died three days later. His surname is one of the names inscribed under the Arc de Triomphe, on Column 16.

Born on 9 February 1759 in Angers, France, Desjardin joined the French army on 8 December 1776 at the age of 17. Since his father worked as a humble valet, Desjardin's prospects of advancement in the Vivarais Infantry Regiment were poor. He became a corporal in 1781 and sergeant in 1789. He was granted leave to see his father in 1790 and immediately threw himself into the task of drilling his hometown National Guard unit. Coming to the attention of the revolutionary authorities, he was appointed adjutant general on 5 August 1791.